Red Sox Nation: Wild card mania

Wednesday

Aug 26, 2009 at 12:01 AMAug 26, 2009 at 12:15 PM

Jared Carrabis, a Saugus resident, is the Governor of Red Sox Nation for Massachusetts. You can read his blog daily at SoxSpaceNews.com His debut book, One Fan’s Story: If This Hat Could Talk, hits shelves on Aug. 28.

Jared Carrabis

If you’re a GM, manager or on the roster of a team that calls the American League East “home,” then you thank God every day that the wild card was introduced to Major League Baseball in 1994.

Since wild card mania hit the game of baseball 15 years ago, a winner has emerged from the American League East 10 times.

The wild card was created with the intentions of giving a team from both the American and National Leagues with the next best record in their respective leagues that failed to win a division title a spot in the postseason.

Since 1994, the Boston Red Sox have claimed the American League wild card as their entry into postseason baseball more than any other club.

Boston’s six wild card finishes stand tall over those in the National League, as no team has ever won it more than twice.

Winning it first in 1998, the Red Sox were bumped in the American League Divisional Series by the Cleveland Indians in four games of a best of three out of five series.

In 1999, Boston stormed back into the postseason via the wild card, and again made a date with the Tribe. Only this time, backed by the mighty bat of Nomar Garciaparra and the flame-throwing arm of Cy Young Award winner, Pedro Martinez, the Red Sox advanced to the American League Championship Series. There, they met their AL East rivals, the New York Yankees.

Boston’s lone win came at home against Roger Clemens, who traded in his red socks for pinstripes via the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Sox knocked its former ace around the yard, en route to a 13-1 victory. It was Boston’s only win against New York, as the Bronx Bombers won their second of three consecutive World Series titles (1998-2000).

In 2003, after a record-setting Red Sox team powered their way into October by claiming the Wild Card for the third time in franchise history, Boston came back from an 0-2 deficit against Billy Beane’s Oakland A’s to put together three straight wins to meet the men in pinstripes under the bright lights of October yet again.

In a memorable series, which had been regarded as more entertaining than the World Series itself, Boston fell to New York in a devastating seventh game after Aaron Boone crushed the hearts and dreams of Sox fans all across New England.

In 2004, well, I think we all know what happened in 2004. After previously trailing the Yankees by 10.5 games in the American League East late in the season, Boston won 20 of 22 games to close the gap to two games at the end of the regular season.

Again, winning the wild card, the Red Sox changed history, sweeping the Anaheim Angels and completing the greatest comeback in sports history against the New York Yankees.

Since 1996, seven of the 13 wild card winners coming from the American League have made it to the ALCS, three have made it to the World Series and two have won it all as the wild card representatives (2002 Angels, 2004 Red Sox).

Boston has won six series as wild card winners, which ties them with the Florida Marlins for most series wins by any team in baseball via the wild card.

As of Aug. 23, after dropping two of three from the Yankees at Fenway Park, the Red Sox have a record of 70-53. Last year on that same date, Boston was 74-55, while trailing in the division by 5.5 games.

The Sox fell to 7.5 games behind the Yankees after losing 8-4 to conclude their most recent series on Sunday night (Aug. 23), but still claimed a one-game lead in the American League wild card.

Did the Red Sox win the division in 2008?

No.

Did they come within one game of making it to the World Series for the third time in five years?

They sure did.

I’m not a fan of playing the “what if” game, but with a healthy Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, the Red Sox possibly could had been looking at a third World Series title in a five-year span.

The moral of this story, for all you Yankee fans out there, is that it doesn’t matter how you get in, as long as you get in.

If Yankee fans want to gloat over their big lead in the division, let them blow all of the air out of their lungs.

Of Boston’s 39 remaining games on the 2009 schedule, they play 22 of those games at Fenway Park, a ballpark in which they just so happen to hold a 39-20 record.

The Red Sox have appeared in the ALCS in four of the last six postseasons. The Yankees, however, haven’t made it past the first round of the playoffs since 2004, and didn’t even make it to October last year.

If the New York fans want to have their parade in the last week of August, by all means, go right ahead. But me? I like my parades at the end of October.

Jared Carrabis, a Saugus resident, is the Governor of Red Sox Nation for Massachusetts. You can read his blog daily at SoxSpaceNews.com His debut book, One Fan’s Story: If This Hat Could Talk, hits shelves on Aug. 28.

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